Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1933-1945
Page 36
23
codebook in cabin: PG 64859:11. Aug. 1915, the report of an interrogation of Galibin after his capture by the Germans. Makela, p. 78, and Hammant, p. 18, concur, though other details differ. N. B. Pavlovich, The Fleet in the First World War, 1: Operations of the Russian Fleet ([Moscow: Ministry of Defense, 1964], trans., for Smithsonian Institution and National Science Foundation [New Delhi: Amerind, 1979]), 76, states that the Russians found in the captain’s cabin the cipher key to the codebook and gave it to the British. For some reason, the British never received it, for Rotter had to solve it. Yankovich, “The Origins of Russian Navy Communications Intelligence,” trans. Thomas B. Hammant, Cryptologia 8 (July 1984), 193–202, adds little to these accounts.
24
“most secure means”: Winston Churchill, The World Crisis (New York: Scribner’s, 1923), 1:503.
25
Ewing: Beesly, Room 40, 10; A. W. Ewing, The Man of Room 40: The Life of Sir Alfred Ewing (London: Hutchinson, 1939), passim; R. V. Jones, “Alfred Ewing and ‘Room 40,’” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 34 (July 1979), 65–90; Andrew, Secret Service, 86. For a different view of Ewing’s early work, see Hiley.
25
Denniston: Beesly, Room 40, 12; Dictionary of National Biography, 1961–1970, 286–87; R. A. Denniston, passim; David Wallechinsky, The Complete Book of the Olympics (New York: Penguin, 1984), under “Field Hockey,” where the name is erroneously given as “Andrew Dennistoun.”
26
“singularly ignorant”: DENN 1/3, p. 4.
26
Rotter: DENN 1/4, p. 5; CLKE 3, chap. 4, pp. 2–3.
26
seized from a merchantman, method for disguising: Australian Archives, Navy Office, Accession MP 1049/1, Items 1914/0351 and 1914/0444; Australian War Memorial, Donated Records List, No. 586 (2nd ser.); ADM 137/4388.
27
“their folly”: DENN 1/3, p. 5.
27
third major codebook, S-119: Jones, “Alfred Ewing,” 75; Beesly, Room 40, 27, 6–7; Germany, Marine-Archiv, Nordsee, 2:191–96; ADM 137/4374.
27
“never wise”: Jones, “Alfred Ewing,” 75.
28
divers, Miller: Grant, 34–40. I am grateful to Dr. Grant for letting me see this manuscript.
29
Knox: Fitzgerald, passim; R. F. Harrod, The Life of John Maynard Keynes (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1951), 40, for “He has got,” and 65; Who Was Who, 1941–1950; Herodas, notes by Walter Headlam, ed. A. D. Knox (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922, reissued 1966), lxi.
29
Birch: Fitzgerald, 93, 138; Beesly, Very Special Intelligence, 124; Who Was Who, 1956–1960; Times, Feb. 16, 1956, p. 12; Morris and Mavis Batey interviews.
31
“in the same way,” new codebook, mechanical: PG 64839:22. Feb. 1915.
31
“the Handelsschiffsverkehrsbuch”: RM 47/N.259:19.Nov.1914. The British found no codebook aboard the Ophelia (ADM 137/2081, p. 385). The indications by which the Reich Naval Staff concluded that the HVB had been compromised remain a mystery.
32
superencipherment keys: Kleikamp, 34.
32
cases of British steaming out: Kleikamp, 34.
33
range, frequency, call signs: Bonatz, Deutsche Marine-Funkaufklärung, 13; Tranow interview.
33
regulations forbade: Kleikamp, 8.
33
Roubaix: Hermann Stützel, “Geheimschrift und Entzifferung im ersten Weltkrieg,” Truppenpraxis 7 (July 1969), 541–45.
34
Neumünster, Braune: Tranow interview; Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, 38; Walle.
34
improvements: Kleikamp, 33–35; DENN 1/3.
3. The Man, the Machine, the Choice
Details of Scherbius’s offer and his correspondence with the naval authorities are in MA:Fasz. 5708:11.8–12. The evolution of the Enigma system and discussions of the hand systems may be traced in PG 48934, 48795, 80609, 34455F, 34466.
36
three other men: Kahn, Codebreakers, 410–24.
39
October 20, businessman, Oberrealschule: Niedersachsiches Hauptstaatsarchiv (Hannover): Hann. 146A: Matrikelbücher der Technische Hochschule Hannover: Nr. 110: Matrikel Nr. 903 (folio 427).
39
jobs, inventions: “A. Scherbius,” Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift (May 23, 1929), 774; “Arthur Scherbius,” Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure 73 (June 15, 1929); his articles and letters in Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift, 1921, 1923, 1924, 1927; German patents 465,557, 465,638, 457,181, 457,740.
40
patents: Türkei, 45–46.
40
best ideas, musical: Helmuth Heimsoeth letter.
41
Chiffriermaschinen Aktien-Gesellschaft: Handbuch der Deutschen Aktien-Gesellschaften, 1925, 2:2888.
articles: in Radio News 5 (January 1924), 878, 997–98; Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift (1923), 1035–36; Zeitschrift für Fernmeldetechnik, Werkund Gerätebau 7 (1923), 70–74; Der Radio-Amateur (November 1923), 76–78; Umschau 27 (August 25, 1923), 552–54; Das Echo 42 (1923), 3168.
41
“Glow Lamp”: Türkei, 85–88, Table O.
42
rotors removable, movable ring, reflector: U.S. patents 1,705,641; 1,938,028; 1,733,886; German patent 411,126.
43
Fisher: Memories (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1919), 108–9.
44
“At the beginning”: Winston Churchill, The World Crisis (New York: Scribner’s, 1923), 1:503. The book was published in German in 1924. Churchill, incidentally, obtained official permission to publish his information about Room 40 (FO 371/179:33–35; Great Britain, Parliament, House of Commons, Parliamentary Debates, 5th. ser., vol. 163 (London, His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1923), col. 435.
45
“the German fleet”: Germany, Marine-Archiv, Nordsee, 4:149.
45
by 1925: my supposition, based on the belief that the machines went into service early in 1926, based in turn on the date of February 9, 1926, on Der Funkschlüssel C, the official naval manual for the machine. The 1928 date given in Erich Raeder, My Life (Annapolis: United States Naval Institute, 1960), 204–5, may he in error. I searched through all the indexes to the German naval records in the U.S. National Archives and examined all likely pre-1926 files provided by the Militärarchiv (PG 49061–49069, 48934, 15389, 15390, RM 8/28, 8/47, 20/305, and 20/306), but I did not find any memoranda urging the adoption of the Enigma, any correspondence or contracts with Scherbius or his firm, any purchase orders or copies of receipts for machines, any orders for the institution of the Enigma as the naval cipher machine, or any papers dealing with the training of radiomen (who handled the ciphering) on the Enigma or with distribution of the machine. Werther provides no data on this question.
45
naval machine: Der Funkschlüssel C.
45
only officers: PG 34456:13 Feb. 1930, p. 2.
46
superimposition: implied in M.Dv.Nr. 32/1, p. 43, and in RM 7/108, p. 44. For an explanation, see Kahn, Codebreakers, 236–37.
46
Schmidt: he was then signing the intercept reports of the Chiffrierstelle (Militärarchiv: OKW 2298); Militärarchiv: Sammlung Krug: MSg 109/2373.
47
July 15, 1928: my presumption, inferred from the fact that the Poles intercepted the first German army messages in Enigma on that date (Rejewski, “Enigma 1930–1940,” unpublished).
47
couple of hundred: my assumption, based on the fact that a list of the Baltic Naval Station for May 28, 1938, shows 49 sets of keys for the Enigma distributed to 32 ships or units (PG 34456:367–68). That station was one of the navy’s four major commands, along with the North Sea Naval Station, the fleet command, and navy headquarters.
47
horse-drawn wagon: Helmuth Heimsoeth letter.
<
br /> 47
May 13, 1929: “A. Scherbius,” Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift; “Arthur Scherbius,” Zeitschrift des Vereins Deutscher Ingenieure.
47
plugboard: NA: RG 165: Military Intelligence Division, Correspondence 1917–41: MID4131-754:2 July 1931.
49
navy plugboard: M.Dv.Nr.21g.
51
“During a change”: Der Reichswehrminister, Jahresverfügung 1933/34, Betrifft: Spionageabwehr in der Wehrmacht, 15. Oktober 1934, p. 8 (copy in WK VII/2530).
51
Bress: PG 34441:17.Feb. 1934.
52
1916 case: RM 47/N.264:25.Nov. 1916.
52
“should not have,” “multiple”: PG 48908:222.
52
Kunert: OKM 20/15390:138–41, 157.
53
“it is assumed”: PG 34534:138. Similar in PG 34456:394.
53
water-soluble ink: PG 34455F:4.Dez. 1939.
54
cue word system: PG 34455F:18.Sept. 1939.
54
keying system: M.Dv.Nr. 32/1.
54
“because our cipher systems”: PG 34455F:4.Nov. 1939.
55
group tactics: Bauer, 109–10; Rohwer, “Die Funkführung,” 324; Jeschke, 38, 64.
4. The Codebreaker and the Spy
The solutions of the 1920s are from Ribadeau-Dumas, 30; MA: OKW 2288–2318; A. G. Denniston, 54–55; Herbert O. Yardley, The American Black Chamber (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1931), 332.
The material on Kowalewski is from Listowel and Jedrzejewicz interviews; Listowel, 21–39; Ziaja. Details of Polish cryptanalysis during the Russo-Polish War come from Sciezynski (Kasparek trans.) and in the 1920s from Kozaczuk. Personal information about Rejewski is from Schaerf and Birnbaum interviews; and Kozaczuk, passim. Details of his solution are from Kozaczuk and the appendixes therein and from discussions with Deavours.
Bertrand’s life story is from Bertrand interview. Details about Schmidt and his spying are from Paillole; Bertrand; and Bloch, all passim; from his Nazi party membership card in the Berlin Document Center; and from David Kahn, “The Spy Who Most Affected World War II,” Kahn on Codes (New York: Macmillan, 1983), 76–88.
59
February 1921: League of Nations, Treaty Series 18 (February 19,1921), 12,13.
65
October 30, 1930: Bertrand, 18.
74
theorem: The formal theorem is set out in Garrett Birkhoff and Saunders MacLane, A Survey of Modern Algebra (New York: Macmillan, 1965), 135. Deavours calls this “the theorem that won World War II.”
76
“The very first trial”: Rejewski in Kozaczuk, 258.
77
“To this day”: Rejewski, “How Polish Mathematicians,” 221.
77
lacked mathematical cryptanalysts: Deavours interview; Rejewski letter, December 7, 1975.
78
“renunciation”: Mein Kampf (Munich: Eher, 1932), 154.
78
merit of Pokorny and Ciȩżki: The great American cryptanalyst William F. Friedman shares this merit. In 1931, he hired two mathematicians (Solomon Kullback and Abraham Sinkov) as cryptanalysts in the Army Signal Corps. In addition, in the 1920s, Friedman solved a simpler rotor machine (Deavours and Kruh, chap. 2).
5. Racing German Changes
Details of the continuing solutions are from Kozaczuk and the appendixes therein; Gaj, passim; Deavours, Breakthrough ’32, passim. Details about Schmidt are from Paillole, passim; and Bertrand, passim.
84
Pyry: Zygalski interview; Kozaczuk, 44.
86
“Ah! Those departures”: Bertrand, 24–25.
87
paid in reichsmarks, ticket: Navarre, 55.
89
none reached the codebreakers: Rejewski, “Remarks on Appendix 1,” 77.
90
new indicators method: WK XIII/69:1938/47:17. and 19. August 1938.
91
“all support”: Great Britain, Foreign Office, Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919–1939, 3rd ser., 4: 546.
91
“null and void”: Germany, Auswärtiges Amt, Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918–1945, ser. D, 6:347–51.
91
France promised: France, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Documents diplomatiques français 1932–1939, 2nd ser., 16:461–62.
92
July 24: Bertrand, 59–60; Garlinski, 42–45; Beesly, “Who Was the Third Man at Pyry?”
94
Dunderdale: Brown, 207–8; Dunderdale interview.
94
“Accueil triomphal”: Bertrand, 60–61.
6. Failure at Broadway Buildings
Details of the formation of G.C. & C.S. are from ADM 1/8637/55; Ferris, 56–58, 89; A. G. Denniston, 49; Andrew, Secret Service, 260; Clarke, 55, 57; Jeffery and Sharp, 106–7; Curzon, passim.
99
Fetterlein: Andrew, Secret Service, 261–62; A. G. Denniston, 50, 53–54; Filby.
99
deliberate exposure: Christopher Andrew, “The British Secret Service and Anglo-Soviet Relations in the 1920s. I: From the Trade Negotiations to the Zinoviev Letter,” Historical journal 20 (1977), 673–706; Christopher Andrew, “British Intelligence and the Breach with Russia in 1927,” Historical Journal 25 (1982), 957–64; A. G. Denniston, 55.
99
Germany: Clarke, 221, 223; A. G. Denniston, 54, 56, 59, 60, 61; Ferris, 72; Hinsley, 1:54.
100
“because of the delightful”: A. G. Denniston, 59.
100
Knox attack on Italian Enigma: Fitzgerald, 254; Denniston, 60.
100
Knox and la méthode des bâtons: implied in photo 12 in Kozaczuk. See also Deavours, “La Méthode des Bâtons.”
101
1937 success: Hinsley, 1:54.
101
plugboard; A. G. Denniston, 60.
102
creation of O.I.C.: Beesly, Very Special Intelligence, 9–23; Hinsley, 12–13; Denning, 270–72.
102
first time since 1928: CLKE 3, no. 40.
102
German subsection: Hinsley, 1:55.
103
Bletchley Park: R. A. Denniston, 114; D. C. Low, The History of Bletchley Park and Mansion (n.p., 1963). For Leon: Debrett’s Peerage and Baronetage (1985), B536.
103
Schleswig-Holstein: Germany, Auswärtiges Amt, Documents on German Foreign Policy 1918–1945, ser. D, 6:471–72, 807; 7:195–96; Bertil Stjernfelt and Klaus-Richard Böhme, Westerplatte 1939, Einzelschriften zur militärischen Geschichte des Zweiten Weltkrieges, 23 (Freiburg: Rombach, 1979), 79.
7. Phantoms
The material on Turing is from Andrew Hodges, passim, and from Good, 3–4, 5. Information on the Turing bombe is from Andrew Hodges, 176–85; Deavours and Ellison interviews; Deavours and Krüh, “Turing Bombe”; and Gaj, 148–60. Material on the bombes is from various interviews. Material on the diagonal board is from Welchman, Hut Six Story, 81–83, 295–309, and Deavours and Ellison interviews. Information on Welchman is from Milner-Barry and Tischler interviews; on de Grey, from Filby, 275; on Adcock, from Morris interview and Dictionary of National Biography, 1961–1970, 6–7; on Alexander, from Milner-Barry interview, Milner-Barry, “C.H. O’D. Alexander,” and Good, 3, 5–6; on Milner-Barry, from Milner-Barry interview and Who’s Who, 1990; on Forster, from Forster interview and Who’s Who, 1990.
105
Polish evacuation: Kozaczuk, 69–80; Watt, 7–9.
109
bright ideas: Twinn interview.
110
“then there is”: “On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem” (1937), reprinted in Martin Davis, The Undecidable (Hewlett, N.Y.: Raven Press, 1965), 148.
116
first bombe: Hinsley, 1:184; 3:2:954; Welchman, “From Polish Bomba,” 107, says September; Welchman, Hut
Six Story, 147, for “Agnes”; Monroe interview.
117
Hut 8: Wylie, Good interviews.
117
ISK: Lewin, 118–19.
8. The Rotors
All the information in this chapter is from PG 30030, ADM 199/123; Rottmann and Masanek interviews; and Becker letter.
9. Royal Flags Wave Kings Above
Information on the Polish cryptanalysts in Algeria and southern France is from Bertrand, 107,117,140–42; and Braquenié interview in Kozaczuk, Geheimoperation Wicher, trans. Theodor Fuchs, ed. Jürgen Rohwer (Koblenz: Bernard & Graefe, 1989), 322. Enciphering the solutions in Enigma is from Kozaczuk, Enigma, 87; and R. A. Denniston, 114. Information on the threats to the security of Enigma solutions is from Bertrand, 156–58, 184–85; and Kozaczuk, Geheimoperation Wicher, 203–6, 210, 216–17, and 334–37.
All details of the capture of April 26, 1940, are from ADM 199/476. I believe this is the Vorpostenboot VP2623 mentioned in Hinsley, 1:163, 336. The Kriegsmarine did not have a Vorpostenbootflotille 26, and no patrol boat number VP2623. Though a contemporary document refers to VP2623 as the source of cryptographic documents—probably Hinsley’s source—the Royal Navy’s War Diary for Home Commands (ADM 199/2203) for April 26, 1940, mentions only the trawlers and says nothing about patrol boats. Moreover, Hinsley says that VP2623 had been looted, as was the Polares. Nothing was found about any captures or sinkings of ships on the date in question in the following German navy war diaries: Commanding Admiral Norway, Admiral of Norwegian West Coast, Admiral of Norwegian North Coast, Admiral of Norwegian Polar Coast, Wehrmacht Command South Coast Norway, Coastal Commander Denmark, Commandant in Section West Coast Denmark.
On the Glorious, the antecedent events, and the effects of its loss: Beesly, Very Special Intelligence, 37–38; Hinsley, 1:141; Winton, Carrier Glorious, 165–82; Roskill, War at Sea, 1:194–96; Hinsley interviews. Ian Fleming’s idea of seizing an Enigma from a German air rescue ship and the ensuing events are from ADM 223/463:38-39 and Wilson.
Material on Hinsley is from Hinsley interview and from Andrew, “F. H. Hinsley”; on Haines, from Hinsley, 1:274; Beesly, Very Special Admiral, 169, 193; CLKE 3, p. 5; and Wylie interview.